Auspex
Auspex is a vampiric Discipline that enables users to extend their already considerable senses to truly stupendous levels, with true masters being able to sense thoughts, emotions, and the very souls of those around them. Level 1 Heightened Senses The vampire’s senses sharpen to a preternatural degree, giving them the ability to see in pitch darkness, hear ultrasonic frequencies and smell the fear of cowering prey. Sense the Unseen The senses of the vampire become attuned to dimensions beyond the mundane, allowing them to sense presences otherwise hidden from the naked eye. This can be anything from another vampire using Obfuscate to someone using Auspex to spy upon the character to a ghost in the middle of the room. Dormant Blood Sorcery spells and rituals might also be found with this power, at the Storyteller’s discretion. Level 2 Aura Perception Using this power, the vampire can perceive the psychic “auras” that radiate from mortals and supernatural beings alike. These halos comprise a shifting series of colors that take practice to discern with clarity. Even the simplest individual has many shifting hues within his aura; strong emotions predominate, while momentary impressions or deep secrets flash through in streaks and swirls. The colors change in sympathy with the subject’s emotional state, blending into new tones in a constantly dancing pattern. The stronger the emotions involved, the more intense the hues become. A skilled vampire can learn much from her subject by reading the nuances of color and brilliance in the aura’s flow. Aside from perceiving emotional states, vampires use Aura Perception to detect supernatural beings. The colors in Kindred auras, while intense, are quite pale; mage halos often flare and crackle with arcane power; the race of shapeshifters has strikingly bright, almost frantic, auras; ghosts have weak auras that flicker fitfully like a dying flame; and faerie creatures’ radiance is shot through with capricious rainbow hues. Premonition The vampire experiences flashes of insight. These may take the form of raised hackles, sudden inspiration or even vivid visions. While never too precise, these visions can nudge the vampire out of harm’s way or reveal a truth previously overlooked. Level 3 Scry the Soul By focusing on a person, the vampire can perceive the state of that person’s psyche as a shifting aura of colors. Auras reveal little precise information, but do provide clues regarding many subjects, e.g., emotional state, Resonance, and supernatural traits. If looking for a specific condition, the vampire can cursorily scan the crowd to detect it. Such cursory scans provide no further information. Share the Senses By reaching out with their mind, the vampire can tap into the senses of another mortal or vampire, seeing, hearing, and feeling what they do. The user still retains their own perceptions and is still aware of their own surroundings, though the effect requires some getting used to. The user decides whether to tap into only one, some, or all of the target’s senses. When used on a stranger this power requires line of sight to initiate. However, it can be used over longer distances on someone who still has some of the user’s Blood in their body. The Spirits Touch When someone handles an object for any length of time, he leaves a psychic impression on the item. A vampire with this level of Auspex can “read” these sensations, learning who handled the object, when he last held it, and what was done with it recently. (For these purposes, a corpse counts as an “object” and can be read accordingly.) These visions are seldom clear and detailed, registering more like a kind of “psychic snapshot.” Still, the Kindred can learn much even from such a glimpse. Although most visions concern the last person to handle the item, a long-time owner leaves a stronger impression than someone who held the object briefly. Gleaning information from the spiritual residue requires the vampire to hold the object and enter a shallow trance. She is only marginally aware of her surroundings while using The Spirit’s Touch, but a loud noise or jarring physical sensation breaks the trance instantly. Level 4 Telepathy The vampire projects a portion of her consciousness into a nearby mortal’s mind, creating a mental link through which she can communicate wordlessly or even read the target’s deepest thoughts. The Kindred “hears” in her own mind the thoughts plucked from a subject as if they were spoken to her. This is one of the most potent vampiric abilities, since, given time, a Kindred can learn virtually anything from a subject without him ever knowing. Level 5 Clairvoyance By closing their eyes and entering a light trance, the vampire becomes master of its surroundings. In a few minutes it can gather information from roughly a city-block sized area (more if outdoors or less populated) that would normally take many hours, perhaps days of legwork and investigation. Once connected in such a way to their surroundings the vampire can also receive information on anything happening out of the ordinary in the area. Psychic Projection The vampire with this awesome ability projects her senses out of her physical shell, stepping from her body as an entity of pure thought. The vampire’s astral form is immune to physical damage or fatigue, and can “fly” with blinding speed anywhere across the earth — or even underground — so long as she remains below the moon’s orbit. The vampire's material form lies in a torpid state while her astral self is active, and the vampire isn’t aware of anything that befalls her body until she returns to it. An ephemeral silver cord connects the Kindred’s psyche to her body. If this cord is severed, her consciousness becomes stranded in the astral plane (the realm of ghosts, spirits, and shades). Attempting to return to the vampire’s physical shell is a long and terrifying ordeal, especially since there is no guarantee that she will accomplish the journey successfully. This significant danger keeps many Kindred from leaving their bodies for long, but those who dare can learn much. Level 6 Prediction Some people are capable of finishing their friends’ sentences. Elder vampires with Prediction sometimes begin their friends’ sentences. Prediction is a constant low-level telepathic scan of the minds of everyone the character is in proximity to. While this power does not give the vampire the details of his neighbors’ conscious thoughts, it does provide a wealth of cues as to the subjects’ moods, suppressed reflexes, and attitudes toward the topic of conversation. Scrying By using Scrying, a vampire can perceive distant events without using Psychic Projection. By concentrating on a familiar person, place, or object, a character can observe the subject’s immediate vicinity while staying aware of her own surroundings. Telepathic Communication Telepathy allows a character to pick up only the surface thoughts of other individuals, and to speak to one at a time. With Telepathic Communication, a character can form a more powerful link between his mind and that of other subjects, allowing them to converse in words, concepts, and sensory images at the speed of thought (and without the need for Willpower expenditure, unlike with Telepathy). Vampires with this level of Auspex can act as “switchboard operators,” creating a telepathic web that allows all participants to share thoughts with some or all other members of the network as they choose. Level 7 Karmic Sight The power of Scry the Soul (Auspex 3) allows a vampire to take a brief glimpse at the soul of a subject. This power takes Scry the Soul several steps forward, allowing a vampire who has mastered Auspex 3 to probe the inner workings of a subject’s mind and soul. Mirror Reflex This power was developed by an Amaros elder who made a fearsome reputation through her fencing prowess, acting as a hired champion in dozens of Torvic duels. Mirror Reflex is similar to Prediction in that it is in essence a low-level telepathic scan of an opponent, but this power taps into physical (rather than social) reflexes, allowing the character to anticipate an enemy’s moves in personal combat. Level 8 Psychic Assault Psychic Assault is nothing less than a direct mind-to-mind attack which uses the sheer force of an elder’s will to overpower his target. Victims of Psychic Assault show little outward sign of the attack, save for nosebleeds and expressions of intense agony; all injuries by means of this psychic pressure inflicted are internal. A medical examination of a mortal victim of a Psychic Assault invariably shows the cause of death to be a heart attack or aneurysm, while vampires killed with this power decay to dust instantly, regardless of age. Level 9 False Slumber This power allows an ancient vampire's spirit to leave his body while in torpor. While seemingly asleep, the vampire is able to project astrally, think, and perceive events normally. Level 10 Category:Powers